


The Midnight Doctor

by onlinemuse



Category: Stargirl (TV 2020)
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - Hospital, Civilian Beth Chapel, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Partially Sighted Beth Chapel, Villain Rick Tyler
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-07 15:53:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,874
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26820190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/onlinemuse/pseuds/onlinemuse
Summary: “I live on the fourth floor; how did you even get up here?!”“Sweetheart, you'll wake the neighbours. Can you help patch me up? I got on the wrong end of a knife.”Beth practically goggled at him because Hourman was reputed to be a glowering brute with a hair trigger temper. What was with the pet names and him acting like a spoiled husband?Did he hit his head?----Beth Chapel had expected it to be a one time thing, but when supervillain Hourman keeps turning up at her apartment, she jokingly calls herself his midnight doctor.But who ends up taking care of the doctor when she's hurt?
Relationships: Beth Chapel/Rick Tyler
Comments: 3
Kudos: 46





	The Midnight Doctor

**Author's Note:**

  * For [freckledpianoman](https://archiveofourown.org/users/freckledpianoman/gifts), [CanaryWarrior](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CanaryWarrior/gifts).



> So this was the result of talking to [freckledpianoman](https://archiveofourown.org/users/freckledpianoman/pseuds/freckledpianoman) and [CanaryWarrior](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CanaryWarrior/pseuds/CanaryWarrior) about different villain!Rick AUs. 
> 
> I ended up touching on one where doctor!Beth keeps coming home to find villain!Hourman bleeding on her couch, a bit like Claire and Matt's relationship on Daredevil and it just grew from there. 
> 
> And this is my very first solo fic in general so enjoy! And check out [the graphic](https://s4karuna.tumblr.com/post/631444441543196672/t-h-e-m-i-d-n-i-g-h-t-d-o-c-t-o-r-by#notes) for the fic on tumblr.

Unruly patients were always a possibility when you worked in a hospital, but even Beth didn’t see what hit her until it was too late. Unfortunately, her supervisor had been unsympathetic, and she had been forced to work until the end of her shift despite her pounding head and sore face.

It wasn’t anything new.

Years of fighting for what she needed, years of working three times as hard as everyone else had led Beth to become one of the few practicing doctors with low vision in the country, but it also meant that she was forced to pick and choose her battles. She wanted someone in her corner for once.

She had managed to limp her way into her apartment, missing the shadowy figure leaping up from her couch. She didn’t even have the energy to take her glasses off, even as the ache in her eyes was progressively getting worse.

“ _Beth_.”

She let out a confused noise, feeling large gloved hands cup her face, a gentle thumb stroking the bruise forming on her cheek. The molten dark eyes that locked onto her dazed self, always hidden by a mask were usually snapping brown, but they were now lit up green-gold with worry.

“What the _hell_ happened to you?”

Oh yeah. She’d forgotten about him. She giggled as she imagined his affronted expression if she had said that out loud.

It had been little more than six months since the night Beth had come home from a fourteen-hour shift, eager for a bubble bath and a cup of her favourite strawberry tea, turning on the lights only to find an _actual supervillain_ bleeding on her couch.

_“I live on the fourth floor; how did you even get up here?!”_

_“Sweetheart, you'll wake the neighbours. Can you help patch me up? I got on the wrong end of a knife.”_

_Beth practically goggled at him because Hourman was reputed to be a glowering brute with a hair trigger temper. What was with the pet names and him acting like a spoiled husband?_

_Did he hit his head?_

Before she knew it, she’d switched out her glasses for magnified ones, straddling him as she concentrated on stitching him up. She failed to ignore how the masked man looked almost amused, stroking her hip even as she lectured him between stitches. Beth was still exhausted, but there was no way she was going to do sloppy work and villain or no villain, he was still bleeding out.

She couldn’t just ignore a patient, even if she was off duty.

And she did _not_ want to explain why there was suddenly a dead villain in her apartment to Court and Yolanda. She’d have two overprotective JSA heroines breaking down her door.

_“I never got your name.”_

_His voice was so soft from where he had rested his head on her shoulder that Beth almost didn’t hear him at first._

_“…Beth,” she answered against her better judgement, even as all the JSA’s warnings of stranger danger blared in the back of her mind. “My name’s Beth.”_

_“Beth, huh?” She could feel the beginnings of a smile curved against the crook of her neck. “Pretty name. Is it short for anything?”_

_There was something in the way he said her name that was a little too soft, a little too intimate. Like he enjoyed the way it sounded on his tongue. She shook her head and chose to ignore him, thinking that he probably had a concussion because things like tall, brooding men flirting with her just didn’t happen to her._

_“I can hear the gears grinding, doc,” he interrupted her thoughts, sounding far too amused. “My head’s just fine.”_

_“Really? You’re loopy enough to flirt with me and all the brooding and your whole look,” she gestured to his dark and foreboding costume, “is enough to tell me that it’s out of character.”_

_“Or maybe I think you’re pretty feisty for someone so tiny.”_

_Beth squeaked, glaring at him as he started rumbling with laughter._

He had been gone the next morning, but she had woken up to the smell of still warm syrniki with strawberries and mocha waiting for her in the kitchen. She cautiously sniffed at the steaming mug before taking a sip, despite all her instincts screaming at her to do otherwise before her face lit up in surprise. For a supervillain, he made a surprisingly good barista.

She still had no idea how he even knew the way that she liked her mocha.

_She hadn’t realized that she had fallen asleep at her kitchen table and that Hourman carried her to bed, huffing over how damn stubborn she was. He watched her burrow into the blankets and gently ran the back of his fingers down her cheek, a slow fond smile on his face as he headed back to the couch._

She thought that it would be the end of it, but Hourman was surprisingly cat-like. Nothing stopped him from coming back every other night. Beth could already hear Yolanda raising her hackles if she ever found out.

In hindsight, she thought as he helped her onto the couch, he didn’t really have a reason to do so. The midnight doctor excuse was bound to wear thin after a while.

* * *

“What’re you doing?”

Normally the sight of Beth looking soft and silly would have made Rick smile.

He remembered walking into his parents’ lonely, sterile hospital room one day to find that someone had obviously been trying to brighten it up. There were fresh sunflowers on his mother’s bedside table _(he still had no idea how the person had even known that they were her favourite),_ yellow hand-knitted blankets, and carefully chosen get-well cards. There was no signature on them, only thoughtful little messages in large loopy handwriting.

Who on earth—

One of the nurses had pointed out the one responsible just as she had been passing by. Beth Chapel was curvy and tiny _(he guessed that she barely reached his shoulder)_ with glowing brown skin and her big glasses did nothing to hide the warmest eyes he’d ever seen. She was in a yellow vintage dress with subtle gold polka dots and a white doctor’s coat, happily humming as she sipped her tea.

The way that her eyes had scrunched up in little half-moons was so damn _cute_ that he turned away to hide his blush.

He hadn’t been able to take his eyes off her ever since.

He would catch glimpses of the bright and beautiful doctor making her rounds whenever he went to visit his parents. She should’ve been too good to be true, but after weeks of seeing her interacting with her patients, how she went above and beyond what was required of her…

Everything he saw showed what a brilliant and compassionate woman Beth was.

Was it any wonder that it was _her_ apartment he ended up in that night?

"Looking you over.”

Rick ran a hand down his face, still shaken by the state she had come home in. She looked like she was about to fall over any second and the arm he had around her waist made no move to remove itself even after settling on the couch.

“ _Shit_ Beth, you scared the hell out of me,” he mumbled, shucking his glove off with his teeth. “Why didn’t the hospital treat you? They just sent you home like this?”

He missed the way that Beth’s face heated up as his thumb lightly brushed over the cut on her lip, distracted by how soft her skin was.

“Y’know,” Beth hummed dreamily, a faraway look in her eyes as she absently batted his arm. “This would’ve been the perfect time for you to rob me. Like the big, bad villain you always say you are.”

“Don’t joke, Beth,” he scolded, but there was no heat in his voice as he pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead. “You're too damn nice for your own good. You deserve to have someone take care of you for—hey, _hey!_ ”

His eyes widened in alarm as he felt her go limp like a ragdoll. “Don't fall asleep! Beth? _Beth!_ ”

“’m tired," Beth slurred, as her eyes rolled back, oblivious to Hourman's panic.

“Come on, Beth don’t do this. _Please_ , just open your eyes for me sweetheart.”

He begged and pleaded with her, but as time stretched on, he realized in growing horror that she wasn’t responding. She looked so frail and _small_ , like she was about to slip through his fingers any second.

He gritted his teeth, choking back a sob as he cradled Beth in his arms on his way out of her apartment, his mind racing with the one thing he could do.

_God_ , please let him make in there in time.

* * *

The light behind Beth’s eyes was too bright.

When her eyes fluttered open, she found herself lying in a hospital bed, warm and cozy under a pile of soft quilted blankets. The usual scratchy hospital sheets and sterile white walls were missing and were those satin pillowcases?

Beth had lost track of the number of times she had to wrap her hair during a stay at the hospital and it felt so nice to not have to worry about it for once.

But the buttery yellow wallpaper and sleek leather couches, the lively pot of multicolour African violets and an adorable Rowlet plush by her bedside made her feel at home. It wasn’t long before she recognized the suite she was in, her eyes wide with shock behind her glasses.

_What on earth was she doing in the VIP room?_

It was strictly reserved for rich donors, _famous_ people. While Beth had developed a certain reputation at the hospital _(over talkative, sweetest doctor in all the Midwest)_ , she still didn’t fall under either category.

The nurse in the middle of checking her vitals, bright red hair and the print on her name tag too small for Beth to make out, was all too eager to tell her how she had ended up at the hospital.

Never underestimate a gossiping nurse’s information network.

“You remember Rex Tyler and Wendi Harris?”

Beth’s brow furrowed in confusion, remembering the couple whose room she often visited, who had been all but forgotten even though Rex was still considered one of the hospital’s major researchers and donors.

“Yeah. They’re both coma patients here, right?”

It was still a huge story even after twenty years. Tyler Inc’s co-CEO and the prominent artist who had founded the Nebraska Arts Foundation, a power couple who still hadn’t regained consciousness after a freak car accident. The only one who had walked away from the crash unscathed had been—

“Well, apparently…” The nurse _(Beth found out her name was Linda)_ shot a glance at the door to make sure no one was eavesdropping before she leaned forward, whispering conspiratorially.

“Their son brought you in.” Linda didn’t notice the startled expression on Beth’s face as she powered on, far too invested in her retelling.

“He charged into the ER carrying you and started yelling at the doctors. He practically turned the whole place upside down, said that he’d sue for negligence if anything happened to you.”

Beth couldn’t even blink, frozen in shock long after Linda had left for her rounds.

But that couldn’t have been right, the only person she had been with tonight was—

Oh.

_Oh!_

_Hourman was Rick Tyler._

She grabbed the Rowlet plush and hugged it to her chest as she stared up at the ceiling, a rainbow’s spectrum of feelings welling up inside her. She wished she had Chuck with her, wanting to listen to the AI drone as he calculated the odds of this happening.

The little she knew about Rick Tyler came from hospital gossip and the occasional curious web search. He was notoriously private and not one for the spotlight, leaving the running of Tyler Inc to his cousins while he became a social worker, settling into a mundane life.

Or so he led others to believe.

But after six months of late-night patch jobs, six months of teasing quips and soft smiles, she berated herself for not having figured it out sooner. She’d been able to figure out Court and Yolanda’s identities.

So why couldn’t she do the same with him?

* * *

Time passed slowly for Beth, never really one to sit still and it was now midnight. She should’ve been asleep, but she could only close her eyes, snuggling the plush owl closer to her as her thoughts kept racing. Visiting hours were long over, but Beth soon felt a dark presence next to her. It would have been threatening for anyone else, but it was solid, familiar, warm as the scent of coffee and leather that wafted through the room.

It made her sigh, slow and content.

She felt a gentle, calloused hand cradle her cheek and she unconsciously nuzzled into the warmth. She didn’t have to open her eyes to know who it was.

“Hi Rick.”

A feather light kiss brushed against her forehead and her eyes fluttered open, curious to finally meet the man under the hood.

He looked a lot like Rex, tall and broad with echoes of the same carved cheekbones and strong jawline, but he had Wendi’s wavy dark hair and snapping eyes. He had ditched the Hourman costume for a leather jacket and a deep yellow hoodie, his jeans threadbare and upon closer looking, she spotted a leather cuff on his wrist with a symbol of an hourglass stitched on it.

It was less volatile supervillain and more high school delinquent turned car mechanic. An ironic choice considering his job as a social worker.

And his eyes were suspiciously red…

_Almost as if he’d been crying._

“Rick?” Beth blinked up at him, her eyes bright with worry. “What's wrong?”

“What's wrong?” She felt his hand trembling as his eyes went dark and intense, like he could make his way deeper and deeper into her. “You had a damn concussion and you passed out, I thought—”

He let out a shaky sigh, his shoulders slumping now that he could finally, _finally_ breathe. Even after he heard his name on her lips _(his real name, not his Hourman title)_ , the last of the tension didn’t truly melt away until he saw those beautiful brown eyes finally open.

"You were so _still_. I thought you wouldn't wake up.”

Beth simply studied his face, uncharacteristically silent for once save for the sound of her gentle breathing. For a second he thought that she just drifted off before she licked her lips, hesitatingly reaching up to touch the hand that was still on her cheek. Funny how she hadn’t realized how much _bigger_ than her he was until now.

"Rick,” she looked at him in confusion, like she was looking at a puzzle she couldn’t wrap her head around. “Just _—why_ would you risk revealing who you are? I could tell the JSA or anyone— _why on earth would you do that?_ ”

The words _for me_ died on her lips. She wasn’t ready to hear him just yet. 

Judging from how he didn't say anything at first as he gazed at her, still gently stroking her cheek as if to remind himself that she was awake now, he wasn’t ready to say anything either.

“Because I didn’t want anything to happen to you,” he managed to choke out, his voice little more than gravel. “You passed out in my arms and my heart just _stopped_.”

Her heart throbbed as he laced the fingers of his free hand with hers, her blood thrumming in her veins as she felt her face heat up.

“I—” he swallowed thickly, “ _Don’t scare me like that again_. If that shitty supervisor of yours even thinks about sending you home like that, I’ll give ‘em hell.”

A smile bloomed on her face at his declaration. Beth couldn’t remember the last time someone, save for Court and Yolanda had stood up for her. She had forgotten how _nice_ it felt. Maybe…

_Maybe she could get used to this._

“Aw, Rick!” The little scowl on his face reminding her of a grumpy kitten and it made her want to tease him. “You’d give someone hell for me?”

“Well it’s not like you'd let me use the hourglass on them anyway,” he grumbled, a high flush on his cheekbones. “Even if it’d save me from having another heart attack.”

But she didn’t miss the pleased little smile on his face as she burst into laughter.

_It turns out he didn’t have to do much hellraising in the first place. Beth’s patients had been in an uproar when they found out what happened and were now hounding the hospital higher ups. He just added fuel to the fire by mentioning a lawsuit._

_And while Rick never liked using the power that came with being Rex Tyler’s son, his father did have a lot of prestige at this particular hospital and Beth’s supervisor clearly had a lot to answer for. They wouldn’t be able to keep their job after this by the time he was through with them._

_But he’d wait until after Beth had been discharged to tell her the good news._

“Don’t worry Rick, I’ll do my best to stay perfectly healthy,” she squeezed his hand, still smiling as her eyes took on a mischievous glint. “For me _and_ your heart. Because resuscitating you sounds terrifying.”

She shrieked with laughter the second he pounced on her, fast as lightning and started tickling her.

“That just hurts,” he growled in mock affront, but no one could miss the spark of intrigue in his eyes as he fell back to his teasing ways. “You saying you wouldn’t do mouth to mouth for me, doc?”

* * *

No one at the nurses’ station had believed Linda when she said that Rex Tyler’s son had turned the hospital upside down for a woman. Not only did the red headed nurse have a tendency to embellish, but had she even met the guy?

Rick Tyler was a scowling, antisocial grizzly of a man. He snapped at anyone who even looked like they were thinking of hitting on him and the only people who even held his attention were his comatose parents. Sure, he had slowly lightened up over the last several months, his glare smoothing out into a thoughtful expression.

But it couldn’t have been because he had found someone.

_Right?_

Needless to say, the nurses gathered outside the door to the VIP room were floored upon seeing the grumpy, reticent man _flirting_ , smiling to the point where they were able to see the faint dimple in his left cheek even from a distance. No one had expected the woman that Rick Tyler was so enamored with to be sweet and bubbly _(and overly talkative according to some)_ Beth Chapel of all people.

They couldn’t see Dr Chapel from where she lay in the hospital bed from this angle, but it gave them the perfect view of the indulgent, meltingly soft look on Rick’s face. It had to be a collective hallucination, they thought at first, but a bout of sharp pinches proved otherwise.

“How did Dr Chapel even get him to talk to her without glaring?” One nurse managed to hiss out, already hearing Linda gloating in the back of her head.

“Witchcraft, maybe?”

Unfortunately, they weren’t being as sneaky as they thought. The second they saw Rick flashing them a death glare, they all went running for their lives long before he slammed the door shut, grumbling something about having no privacy.

_In hindsight maybe they should’ve seen it coming. Who better to tame a beast than the closest thing to a real-life Disney princess?_

* * *

Even though Beth was awake, she still felt groggy, letting out a tiny kitten yawn as she settled back against the pillows. Rick stayed a quiet, steady presence at her side, his watchful gaze not leaving her face for a second as he absently ran a thumb over the knuckles of the hand he was holding.

One thing still bugged her though.

“How long was I out for?”

“Too long,” he groused, briefly retreating back into the shell of what he was before he had met her.

But it was too short of an answer for Beth, for someone who thrived on information and the little details that everyone overlooked.

“I meant how long specifically, Rick?”

The way his face fell at that, his eyes so deep and _mournful_ that it made her heart clench. He never really completely grew out of being the lost little boy who still longed for his parents, did he?

“Hey,” she brushed a hand against his cheek as she tried to comfort him. “I’m okay now.”

Rick caught her fluttering hand in his and pressed a slow, meaningful kiss to her palm.

“Nine hours.” His voice was low and raspy, grit and anger barely hiding the raw unadulterated fear on his face. “You were unconscious for nine hours.”

He couldn’t stop himself from choking out a half-strangled sob as he took her hands in his, his lips brushing over her knuckles in apology.

Beth had no idea who moved first, wondering if they had somehow met in the middle, but she found Rick crowding into her hospital bed with her, his face buried in the curve between her neck and shoulder as she combed her fingers through his hair.

He nuzzled against her neck, his lips brushing against her pulse point. She wasn’t sure if it was accidental or not, but she melted under his touch, letting out a soft hum to let him know she was still awake.

“Hear my heartbeat?” she murmured, smiling as she felt him nodding against her. “It’s still beating.”

She snuggled into his chest, her head resting over his stuttering heartbeat, her last words filling the room as the rhythm lulled her to sleep.

“ _And so is yours._ ”

* * *

Rick didn’t know what to do with himself. His exhaustion ran bone deep, but the thoughts racing in his head refused to _stop_ as his calloused fingers followed the curve of her peaceful, sleeping face. He chuckled softly as he felt her unconsciously grab his hand even as she was sleeping, squeezing it absently as if she already knew he was there.

What he felt about her ran much deeper than anything as petty as her being his midnight doctor. He wanted to take care of her, he realized. He wanted to see her face light up when she saw him making breakfast for her, wanted to make her laugh whenever she had that lonely, faraway look on her face. He wanted to cradle her in his arms as he hummed softly in her ear, coaxing her to sleep after a long shift and _oh god_.

_He was in love._

He sighed, soft and slow, unable to resist the urge to drop a kiss next to the corner of her mouth before he finally, _finally_ fell asleep. His thoughts, churning and complicated as they were, could wait until morning.

He did know one thing at least.

Beth Chapel was a woman worth becoming a hero for.


End file.
